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NY Times
WASHINGTON — The federal government teetered Monday night on the brink of its first shutdown in nearly two decades after last-minute moves by the House and Senate failed to break a bitter budget standoff over President Obama’s health care law, raising the prospect that federal agencies would run out of money as of Tuesday.House Republican leaders won approval, in a vote of 228 to 201, of a new plan to tie further government spending to a one-year delay in a requirement that individuals buy health insurance after the Senate took less than 25 minutes to convene and dispose of a weekend budget proposal by the House Republicans. The House proposal would deny federal subsidies to members of Congress, Capitol Hill staff, executive branch political appointees, White House staff, and the president and vice president, who would be forced to buy their health coverage on the Affordable Care Act’s new insurance exchanges.
Bloomberg
The U.S. government sped toward a partial shutdown at midnight, as lawmakers lobbed dead-end proposals across the Capitol and President Barack Obama made last-minute phone calls to the top four congressional leaders.
The House voted 228-201 to pass its third version of a short-term extension of government funding in the past 10 days. Each attempt linked averting a shutdown to major changes to the 2010 Affordable Care Act, and each drew veto threats from Obama.“You don’t get to extract a ransom for doing your job, for doing what you’re supposed to be doing anyway or just because there’s a law there you don’t like,” Obama said at the White House today. “Time’s running out.”
The partisan confrontation showed few signs of ending as the Senate was set to reject the latest House plan within an hour of the vote, said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Barring a last-minute compromise or concession, the U.S. appears headed for its first shutdown in 17 years.
USA Today
President Obama blamed an imminent government shutdown on House Republicans on Monday and said his health care plan is "moving forward" despite GOP efforts to defund it."You don't get to extract a ransom for doing your job, for doing what you're supposed to be doing anyway ... just because there's a law there that you don't like," Obama said in the White House briefing room.
Late Monday, Obama spoke by phone with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and other top lawmakers, but there did not appear to be a breakthrough in the impasse that would trigger a shutdown.
Congress has two responsibilities, Obama told reporters: passing budgets and — in a reference to the upcoming battle over the debt ceiling — paying the government's bills. The Republicans are shirking both, he said.
Obama said a partial government shutdown — which would start at midnight unless there is an 11th-hour deal — will damage economic recovery and hurt "real people right away." He said, "It will throw a wrench into the gears of our economy at a time when those gears have gained some traction."